Reported by locals, there are supposedly 2 baby black panthers living out in a park right on the outskirts of town. A few locals have said that they were raised by someone in town until he didn't want them anymore, and released them.

Others claim, that the sightings from March 2010 in Decatur, IL are linked to this one. That maybe these creatures have migrated, or are growing in number.

Yes I have....Troy Taylor mentions about them in his "Haunted Decatur" series, and there have been people I have spoken to that have talked about camping in one of the parks there...Faries Park...and hearing the sounds of a woman screaming...which is the sound a panther makes. There are documented cases of the sightings, but to the best of my knowledge, no carcass has ever been found...and as far back as the sightings go, you would think they would have.

There is also (allegedly) a stump somewhere in the Reas Bridge area that has the words "kilt a panther, 1851" carved into it...but I haven't ever seen that, and I've been all over that place.

Thanks for the link! I am originally from this area, and an acquaintance from the Decatur area told me about the sightings in Decatur a few months back. It's not surprising that a few months later, in a small town an hour away, there would be more sightings.

If you look at yours and the surrounding states you will see cougars have been verified as having returned to an area they once inhabited. While some are thought to be pets released most are thought to be coming from the Dakotas. Now some cougars are very dark with (while rare) some being reported to be black. So yes its possible some of the reports are true.

I remember when I was a kid people talked about Black Panthers roaming the woods thru there. They speculated that the panthers escaped from a zoo and so on. I have never actually seen one in the wild though. Man, thinking about it, that story has been going around for a very long time.

(06-04-2010 11:35 AM)UglyNRude Wrote: If you look at yours and the surrounding states you will see cougars have been verified as having returned to an area they once inhabited. While some are thought to be pets released most are thought to be coming from the Dakotas. Now some cougars are very dark with (while rare) some being reported to be black. So yes its possible some of the reports are true.

Even the ones that look solid black aren't and upon closer inspection (provided one wishes to get that close to one) you will see the patterns on the fur.

Quote:Black panthers are melanistic colour variants of several species of larger cat.

Close examination of the color of these black cats will show that the typical markings are still there, but are hidden by the excess black pigment melanin, giving an effect similar to that of printed silk.

Both attached photos are of these melanistic black panthers. In one it is quite clear that the black is not a solid colour, in the other, you can't tell.